3 MONTHS DELAY FOR CONNECTING TO A NEW BUILD PROPE...

Question

Hi all,
This is my first post here, not intended to be a rant, but would like to share my anger and frustration I had with BT Openreach. This is a very long story.
To begin, I am not an average user, I understand about BT Wholesale, ISP, service provider, Line provisioning team, Line Plant Team etc... Yet, everytime I called BT customer, I was treated as if I was an idiot but in fact, the "advisors" were actually those did not know whats going on!
Anyway, I think it was rather unfortunate that no matter which ISP we go for, the actual connection must be done by Openreach. This means, if Openreach decides not to work for you, then you'll be stuck... forever. well, satellite broadband or 3G,4G are still viable if you have the wallet.
So my situation began 3 months ago when I moved into my new built apartment in London. I quickly signed up to BT internet and phone because this was just a daily necessity. Typically, there is a 14days lead time for the engineers to attend your case, which is reasonable... and so I waited for it. The "big" day came which I took holiday from work to wait, and after numerous emails and txt to tell me to wait at home for the engineer, and guess what happened? No show from BT.
I phoned the customer care in India the next day, waited for 30mins on my mobile (had not discover WeQ4U yet that time), someone picked up and said that the engineer would come again the following monday, although no explanation was given why no show the first time. So, I waited and wasted another day of my 25days annual leave, NO SHOW AGAIN!
This time, I was given an explanation that there was a problem at the switch, so additional works was required. Which also meant that an even longer delay would result. I wasn't happy with BT and their so-called customer care’s attitude and so decided to cancel my order and go with a service provider that I used for the last 7 years.
So... I went to signup phone and internet package with them, as this company was truly UK BASED, I received update almost instantly. So on the day I paid for the connection, it immediately showed up as delay status from Openreach. I phone them up to find out, and they were told by Openreach that there was a substantial problem occurred at the exchange, - this seemed to match with what BT told me, so fair enough, I waited for a week as Openreach said they would update my ISP in a week time. 
A week had gone, as expected, no update whatsoever. I contacted my service provider to find out, then they were told by Openreach that they were working on it and advised a "significant update" would be issued 3 WEEKS LATER! (This was probably the 5th week since I signed up to BT broadband). Openreach also advised my provider not to contact them during this time because there would not be any updates.
Ok, so I waited for three more weeks (8th week). I called my service provider to check the progress, which they raised the question to BT Wholesale team and then the team spoke to BT Openreach, the answer I got was they had not completed the works… that was it! They advised me to wait for another THREE weeks for an UPDATE. WTF, bear in mind the property was not in the middle of nowhere, it was in LONDON! waiting for 6 weeks just to receive an update? and yet they did not mention about when the works would be completed, or whether it had even started?
After a good conversation with my service provider, they had escalated the case for me. After a week of escalation, no reply from Openreach so my provider escalated again to get to their manager, now this time the manager came back and said the works were completed! So.. did that mean I could get my phone line to work? No. 
Today is probably the 10th week I waited, and so far, no official word from Openreach on when they will actually connect my phone. 
This is ridiculous because I am living in a new built apartment, my ISP also searched that there are 3 pairs of spare lines to the apartment block – which is referred as Gold status. At one point, Openreach said that there was a lack of supply to my development, hence causing the delay. And yet I am receiving more and more WIFI connections from my neighbours everyday, so how can this be true?
I contacted my property developer, they said they had provided all necessary infrastructure, not being able to connect phone would be BT’s problem.
I contacted Ofcom, and they said there was NO WAY to complaint about Openreach because none of us are actually in contract with them. The only way to complaint would be through my ISP. Well, in a way this was true, but shouldn’t there be warranty from Openreach to the end users? Any visiting Openreach website was more of a time waster because they do not contain any useful information about contacting them or making a complaint.
My ISP contacted BT wholesale and Openreach, the reply from them was almost a box standard reason for delay. I felt that this problem was out of their control because there wasn’t much they could do if BT Wholesale or openreach were not co-operating.
So… what should I do now? Wait? Change supplier? Or just give up and use satellite broadband? Given that no satellite dishes are allowed in apartment balconies. 3G? 4G?
adrian

Answer 1

Hi atsang,
Unfortunately you will need to contact and negotiate with your Communication Provider as BT Retail (an ISP who operates this forum) can't help you as you're not a BT Retail Customer.
Openreach (a BTplc Group Company) own, maintain and install the exchanges and telecommunication lines for the majority of ISPs and Communication Provider. However Openreach is a seperate line of business to the rest of the BTplc Group and have to treat all ISPs/CPs equally and BT Retail do not get any priority.
Openreach do not talk to end users like you and I, they will only talk to the ISPs/CPs.
I'm afraid you will need to take this up with your Communication Provider.
This is a BT Retail Customer to Customer help forum. The only BT presence are the moderators.
Hope that helps and you get it sorted soon,
Cheers
jac_95 | BT.com Help Site | BT Service Status
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